Burning and Turning
by Vimesy
Summary: Gero and Bulma are the two most brilliant scientists the world has ever known; their greatest inventions are about to go dimension hopping, and Trunks is slightly less than thrilled. Pretty pissed, actually, even with his hero complex getting in the way.
1. Waking Dreams

_Only castles burning, and people turning, and then you'll come around._

Trunks hadn't carried his sword with him in over a year, but as he clipped the baldric in front of his chest, the clench in his gut eased. He'd felt a strange anxiety for the past few days, something building up. The dream, though, was what had made him want to go out to the pile of rubble that was still South City.

Dreams were nothing new, and his subconscious put him through his paces on a nightly basis. This one had felt different, more real, like some kind of warning. The androids had clawed their way out of the dirt, stronger and more vicious than ever, and he'd felt like he was fourteen again. Weak and powerless.

He didn't tell his mother where he was going as he headed out the door, and she didn't ask; the past year had been a smooth slide into a routine of silence. He performed chores and errands when asked, spoke when spoken to, and remained the cold warrior that a year with his father had taught him to be. Bulma didn't know whether to blame it on Vegeta himself, on the trip to the past, or on a lifetime of being the worlds best hope and still not strong enough. She'd watched her son detach himself from most human contact in order to fulfill his one main objective; serve and protect.

Just because he went out and helped survivors rebuild, didn't mean he did anything overly much to get them to like him. Just because he was called out to settle disputes between two groups of settlers, or keep a gang from terrorizing the countryside, didn't mean that anyone wanted to be his friend. He sat on the edge of the crowed at the midnight bonfires, rarely bedded a woman, and only smiled just before a fight. He was their law and order, their ultimate authority in this time of anarchy; he was needed, but not loved.

Bulma had understood the scared seventeen year old that had left her; she didn't think the cold twenty-one year old who'd come back to her even understood himself. She loved him because she'd given birth the him; she feared him because of the cold hardness that had somehow leaked out of Vegeta's black eyes and into his big blue ones.

Trunks surveyed the area as he landed; he'd blasted Eighteen just over there, and Seventeen a little more to the right. The husk of an overturned car still remained, but something had clawed its way out of the engine. Something big. Trunks knelt by the car, and peered into the cavity. Three long black strands were caught in the sharp metal. He pulled them close to his face, and inhaled. Dank and organic, like mushrooms growing in the dark. No reason to panic. Yet.

His gut was clenching, but he circled the surrounding area. He paused next to a slab of concrete, studied the jagged hole in the center. Steel and rubble were scattered across the slab, and it looked like something had exploded out of it. Trunks peered down the hole; there was dirt under the concrete, and a lot of claw marks. Trunks leaned close to peer at them, and pulled a broken human fingernail out of one of the deep gouges.

So they'd regenerated, like Cell. It'd taken them much longer, but his gut had been right. Trunks stood, still staring at the fingernail. They had no ki, so he couldn't follow them on his own. He hadn't gotten a call from anyone, so they weren't out terrorizing yet. He looked around at the crumbling city, and thought, If I just crawled out of a bunch of dirt, what would I want first? That was easy; she'd head straight for the nearest set of clean clothes and a hot shower. Trunks began his systematic search, and found what he was looking for less then a block away.

The faint sound of running water was coming out of a building that had once had storefront windows, blasted away completely now. Trunks stepped over the broken glass and dusty rubble, and followed the footprints into the back of the store. The sound of running water was louder here, and Trunks could hear a soft female voice singing slightly off key. He rounded the corner, deliberately crunched some rocks under his foot, and smirked as Eighteen whirled around. There were dusty boxes along one wall that had been recently opened; that must have been where she'd found the oversized tee-shirt and the sweat pants. Her wet hair hung in her startled blue eyes, and she slowly lowered the brush. Trunks didn't move for a long moment, waiting for her to rush him. She sighed, though, and smiled.

"You scared me for a minute, there," She stood and moved toward him, still smiling. "I'm Sarah, and my brother Steven is in there," she gestured at a door on the opposite wall with the brush, where the sound of running water was coming from. "Look, I know this sounds kinda strange, but what happened? The city is so trashed we don't even know where we are. The last few things I can remember, we were in South City, and everything was fine, all the people were just walking around, and I think there was some kind of parade going on." She bit her lip prettily, brows furrowed in concern.

Trunks watched her face as she spoke; all his life, she'd never once portrayed any kind of emotion. Now her face was full of it, bouncing from surprise, to relief, to fear. This was either real, or a very good trick, and a lifetime of fear and hate made him bet on the latter.

"This _was_ South City. Twenty years ago." Trunks watched her carefully, waiting for the giveaway. No one could act that good all the time.

The gasp and look of shocked horror didn't fit. The way her eyes teared up, the way her shoulders slumped, the way she looked down at the ground, didn't add up. Something was deeply, horribly wrong here. She shook her head vehemently, blonde hair swinging and splashing water.

"That's impossible. Twenty years don't just go by, and then you wake up the same age you were with no memory! That's not possible!" she was crying and backing away, still shaking her head, when Seventeen came out of the door on the opposite wall. Trunks cursed himself; he hadn't heard the water turn off. The android was holding up a shirt to cover himself, still dripping water, looking concerned.

"Sarah, what's wrong? Who is that?" He came into the room, suddenly more hostile as Eighteen rushed to him in tears. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Trunks burst out laughing. Oh, Fate was a sick fuck, alright. Either this was real, and Trunks couldn't kill them again for crimes they couldn't remember, or they were putting on this little show for his benefit, gods only knew why. He laughed until he was breathless, a little sick, and tear-streaked.

"You wanna share what was so goddamn funny?" Seventeen had taken the opportunity to dress himself, and had found a gun from somewhere. Probably behind one of the cashier counters, Trunks thought. He sighed, though, because however they reacted to the gun would be the proof.

Trunks took three slow, measured steps toward the androids; Seventeen swung the gun up between them, cocking it as he braced his feet and Eighteen hid behind him. Trunks reached out, caught the bullet, and bent the muzzle before another shot could be fired. The crumpled bullet clattered noisily on the ground.

Seventeen backed away hurriedly, shoving Eighteen along behind him, matching sets of china-blue eyes wide with horror and fear.

"You need to come with me," Trunks cocked his head just a little, and turned back the way he'd come.

"Fuck that!" Seventeen snarled, shoved Eighteen through the doorway he'd come through, and tried to run after her.

Trunks grabbed the back of his neck, and dragged the android behind him as he went after Eighteen. She made it as far as the showers, before Trunks wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her close. Seventeen thrashed in his grip, trying to break away as Trunks marched them back out into the street. Trunks let him go long enough to catch him again around the waist, and leapt into the sky. They shrieked and latched onto him; Trunks didn't know he was grinning evilly until he deposited the androids in the lab at his mother's feet, and she looked at him shrewdly before she turned her attention to the other two.

Trunks watched her perform each test; scanning them with complicated machinery, asking them questions about the last few things they remembered, taking their blood pressure. Bulma Briefs was nothing if not thorough, and she used every piece of equipment she had in her lab to test them, before she finally sat back in her chair and sighed heavily.

Trunks watched the androids huddle together, looking tired and scared. He didn't really care that he still looked like a cat with a mouse, and even as he listened to his mothers diagnosis, he didn't take his eyes off of them.

"The regenerative technology is sheer genius. Gero must have adapted it for Cell. The major design flaw is that their organic tissue, and most of the hardwiring was regenerated, but all the programming is gone. Like rebooting a computer after it's crashed." Bulma stared at the two across the table from her, and sighed again. "Looks like you've got a second chance, guys." Her smile was weary, and just a little bitter, but it was better comfort than the evil delight radiating off of Trunks.

"Gero turned us into mindless killing machines, and then set us loose on the world?" Eighteen took a deep breath. "I never wanted to hurt anyone!" she shrieked, and started bawling.

Trunks laughed. "Fate's a sick fuck, scrap heap. Or have you not realized that yet?" Eighteen didn't even hear him, she was sobbing so hard. But Seventeen started to tear up. He cried silently, staring at nothing as he held his sister.

"That's enough." Bulma's chair scraped across the floor as she stood up. "I raised you better than that, Trunks. Now, go get a room ready, and put on some tea. I'm going to go find you two some clothes you can wear, and give you some time to get it together again."

Trunks followed his mother out the door, smirking over his shoulder.

Bulma was all about second chances and forgiveness, or Trunks wouldn't even have been born. And while she'd tried to instill the same things in Trunks, the main problem was that he was going to make them work a hell of a lot harder before they'd earned it. The sorrow and the guilt were real, and now they had to channel it. Their programming might or might not come back; that bore constant vigilance. So, the goal was adjusted; while it was still 'protect and serve,' this now included forcing the two creatures he hated most to repay their debt to society.

He let them sleep the first day. The second, he had them out of bed and dressed for the day by dawn. They sparred lightly, because Trunks wanted the eventual challenge of a real opponent instead of constantly training alone. He drove them out to his favorite field, ordered them to pick enough flowers for 108 graves, then drove them to one of the nearest memorial walls. Then it was off to one of the surrounding villages that needed some construction work done. They worked until there was almost no light left, before Trunks drove them back to Capsule Corp. Bulma was just starting to make dinner, so Trunks dragged them back outside and started another sparring session, and trooped in behind them when Bulma called them back. They were exhausted when they finally climbed the stairs to the bedroom they shared. Trunks slept in the tree just outside their window, just in case, and woke them up just before dawn to repeat the now established routine.

He called them Sarah and Steven in front of other people, to avoid trouble. That, he realized later, was his undoing. He started out being as deliberately crude and dehumanizing as possible, but by calling them different names, and spending every waking hour with them for six months, somehow made it harder and harder. When he first let Steven tackle him playfully, he thought nothing of it. When Sarah made a crown for him out of flowers that were the exact same shade as his hair, and he hung it on the wall of his bedroom instead of throwing it away, he started to wonder. When he let Steven crawl into his lap and cry after they'd put flowers on all the graves at an old church, he scowled and held onto the smaller man while he tried to figure out if he'd gone insane or not.

Instead of spending the night in the tree outside their window, like he usually did, he went and sorted out how he felt. As androids, as the destroyers of his world, he'd hated them. Had learned to hate them better from his father. As humans, they were clumsy and kind of cute, sweet when they were tired and trying to cuddle with him, and playful when he sparred with them. Steven enjoyed the construction work, wandering off to work on his own section instead of tailing behind Trunks like Sarah did. Sarah kissed each flower before she put it next to a grave or a name, tried to help Bulma cook, needed to be touched constantly for reassurance.

Trunks hit himself in the head when he realized he'd fallen in love with both of them.

He flew back to Capsule Corperation around midnight, and for the first time in six months, spent the rest of the night in his own bed. He'd planned to let them sleep in; Steven came into his room at dawn, showered and dressed, and kissed him awake. Trunks rolled them until he was on top, kissed back hard for a long moment, then rolled off and told the android to go back to sleep. When Sarah came in two minutes later and nuzzled into his arms, rubbing against him in that irritatingly innocent way she had, he sighed, enjoyed it for a few minutes, and dragged himself out of bed, through the shower, and into some clean clothes. By the time he'd gotten down to the breakfast table, Bulma was already awake and staring blearily into her first cup of coffee.

"You need anything done today?" Trunks asked out of habit, as he poured himself a cup of the thick black brew.

"Yeah. Could you clean out the garage on the south side of the house?" Bulma rubbed her eyes and took a sip of coffee.

"No problem. I'll go find the scrap heaps." Trunks stuck his head out the kitchen door, hollered for the androids to come inside from where they were warming up, and walked through the house to the garage Bulma had specified. They tailed after him, unusually quiet. That ended quickly as they started rummaging through the garage, bantering playfully as they brought boxes of old toys and half-finished inventions out onto the lawn. Trunks was bending over an unlabled box when he heard the time machine's engine rev up. He rushed back into the garage, shouted angrily as the blue glow started to envelope the machine, and darted into the still open hatch, slamming the glass lid shut as they snapped into the slipstream if time. It was cramped with three adult bodies in the cockpit, and it bordered on claustrophobic as Trunks started shouting profanities.

He groaned and thunked his head down onto the control panel as they popped back out of the slipstream; Freeza's ship was just beginning to land.

* * *

A/N; I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. I also promise that there will be no incest. I dont know who wrote the song at the very beginning.


	2. Deja vu

_We twist and turn where angels burn._

Trunks popped the hatch and climbed out of the time machine. He was livid; his aura flickered from blue to gold, his hair floated around him in a flickering purple and golden halo. One eye was still blue, but the other was a puplless green. He stood on the dusty patch of ground and breathed deeply until his ki wasn't fluxuating so badly. When he opened his eyes again, Freeza's ship had landed, and the soldiers were pouring out. He opened his ki senses, and jerked in surprise; the Z Warriors weren't where they were supposed to be. Nearly upon Freeza, instead of about half a mile back. He turned back to the time machine; the twins had crawled out of the cockpit, and were watching him warily. He walked past them, closed the hatch, and encapsulated the machine.

"I want you to find my mother, and keep her out of trouble." He tucked the capsule into his belt, and turned to face the androids. "There's going to be a fight in about three minutes. I swear to god, if I catch you anywhere near it, I'm going to…" he paused, mostly because there was no threat dire enough to keep them back. "Just keep Bulma safe. She's in that direction." He pointed to where he could feel his mother's ki, and then took to the air.

He flew in low, keeping his ki dampened. He could see Freeza, posturing and threatening, and the Z Warriors creeping closer. Freeza's soldiers took off, and the Earth's defenders sprang out of hiding and onto the unprepared soldiers. Vegeta steered around them, and flew straight at Freeza; wearing a blue shirt. Pink, Trunks thought as Freeza slammed the Sayajin Prince into the ground, he should be wearing pink. Then he was in the midst of the fray, and took out a couple of soldiers with a few well-aimed ki blasts to free up the others before he darted towards his father.

The man was already taking a beating, with Freeza crouched over him as the Ice-jin strangled him slowly.

"Hey, Freeza!" Trunks gave the lizard enough time to look up, before he planted his boot under his chin and sent the Ice-jin flying up and backwards. "I'm already having a bad day, and beating the shit out of you is just the right amount of steam I need to let off." Trunks knew he was grinning evilly, knew he looked just like his father, knew as he planted his feet that this was even worse of a start then the last attempt had been.

"Who the hell are you?" Freeza climbed to his feet, stalked closer, still eyeing Vegeta as the prince spat blood onto the dirt.

"I'd say something cheesy, like 'your worst nightmare,' but that just wouldn't be my style." Trunks hooked his thumbs in his jeans and shrugged. "Besides, you don't deserve this pathetic bantering. A true warrior kills his enemy without grandstand and posturing. Let me give you a hands on demonstration." Trunks blurred forward, grabbed Freeza by the throat, and held the Ice-jin aloft as he cut off the lizards air supply. Freeza thrashed, kicked and punched, wrapped his mechanical tail around Trunks' throat and squeezed. Trunks just smirked as he waited for Vegeta to stand up behind him. With Freeza still thrashing in his grip, he turned to his father. "You want your justice? Take his heart, then."

Vegeta snarled and stalked toward them, and plunged his hand into Freeza's chest, ripping the lizards' heart out in a spray of blood. Vegeta bit into the still-fluttering muscle, chewed thoughtfully as Freeza's body gave its death throws, and then offered the still-warm meat to Trunks, blood dripping down his pointed chin. Trunks dropped the body, took a bite out of the prize, and watched King Kold over Vegeta's shoulder as he chewed.

"If you'll excuse me for a minute." Trunks stepped past his father, and from twenty feet away, blew the giant lizard to ashes. There was an unpleasant squishing sound as Vegeta dropped the heart and ground it under his heel. Trunks turned back toward the little fights, and watched as the last of Freeza's soldiers died. The Z Warriors zeroed in on Trunks, coming to stand in a rough circle around him; bloody, panting, and ready. Trunks looked at his watch, pressed a few buttons to align it with his grandfather's satellites, and estimated.

"Goku should be here in another hour and a half. Maybe."

"Who's Goku?" Gohan asked, and Trunks felt his blood run cold. Not just the question, but Gohan was at least twelve, wearing armor instead of Piccolo's purple gi.

"This just got complicated. Great, just _fucking_ great." Trunks pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaled deeply, and exhaled for seven counts. "Look, I'm sorry, but I cant go into a lot of detail without running the risk of unraveling the space-time continuum, which is going to be interesting, considering that my very presence alters things significantly. If you'd be so kind as to follow me, I think my androids are over there somewhere." Trunks started toward the little flare of Bulma's ki; he didn't realize that he'd hunched his shoulders forward and was stalking across the battlefield. He didn't notice his ki starting to spike, or the looks the Z Warriors were exchanging. Vegeta came up beside him, keeping pace with him serenely.

"Do you plan on telling us who you are, or do we get to guess?" Vegeta blasted a body out of the way, just before Trunks would have stepped on it.

"That depends on whether or not I've been born yet. You know who Kakarrot is?" they cleared the radius of bodies, and Trunks the most direct way up the mountain, despite such simple obsitcles as sheer cliffs.

"Yeah. He died of a heart virus last spring." Trunks was quiet for a long moment, thinking.

"Hey, mister," Gohan came up on the other side of Trunks. "If you're looking for my dad, you should talk to my Uncle Raditz, or Grandpa Bardock; they take care of things now that Mom's gone, too." Trunks prided himself on the fact that he didn't stop dead, didn't stumble; just kept walking. He stared at Gohan for so long though, that the kid gave him a weird look, so he snapped his eyes around to look at where he was going.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Trunks refocused his mental energy, and formed the next few questions. "Exactly how long have there been Sayajin on Earth, how many are there, and when-" Trunks let his thoughts get derailed again as Bulma came into view, tailed not just by Steven and Sarah but by four other Sayajin. There were the two that looked like Goku, especially the older one, despite the scars, and there was the older version of Vegeta, and the huge hulk with the cheesy mustache. And bouncing along on Bulma's hip was a little purple-haired baby, with a long brown tail poking out of its diaper.

"Trunks!" Steven darted out ahead of the others, and took a flying leap into Trunks' arms, looking enormously pleased with himself. "Hey there, gorgeous! We found Bulma, just like you said, but your grandfather was already taking pretty good care of her." Arms fastened around Trunks' neck, and legs wrapped around his waist, Steven squirmed just a little as Trunks gently pried him away. Before he'd even pushed the smaller man an arms length away, Sarah had darted between them and fastened her arms around Trunks' neck.

"You are such a cute baby!" She giggled, kissed him on the cheek, and darted away again before Trunks could scream.

"Hey, Vegetable Head," Bulma kissed Vegeta when she reached him, and Trunks kept his jaw clamped firmly shut at the fact that he'd even let her.

"Uncle Raditz, what took you so long?" Gohan was standing close to the long-haired Sayajin, looking accusatory as only a teenager can manage.

"I just barely got your cousin down for a nap, kid, I thought there'd be enough of Freeza left for when I got here," the man answered, ruffling Gohan's hair.

"Hey, Bardock," Yaumcha had moved in close to the Goku-look-alike, letting the older man wrap a hand around the base of his neck; Trunks stared around him, watching their relationships unfold. Piccolo and Krillin were watching him still, and Vegeta hadn't taken his eyes off of Trunks since the battle, and the two Sayajin who'd stayed quiet were watching him as Sarah and Steven wrapped their arms around his waist.

"You're little friends say you took a trip here in a time machine." The man looked like Vegeta, if his father had salt and pepper hair and a goatee.

"These two don't have the brains god gave a retarded kitten."

"Hey!" the androids squawked indignantly; Trunks carried on as if they hadn't spoken.

"Playing with a dusty old machine that's been sitting in a garage for over a year, when you know that Bulma built it but not what the hell it does, is conceivably the stupidest thing I've ever seen anyone do. Can you top that?" Trunks was feeling feral and grouchy, but the old man laughing made him smirk.

"Depends. You don't know Nappa," and he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the hulking Sayajin with the moustache. "So you're my grandson, eh?"

"What the hell would Bulma need to build a time machine for?" Vegeta had wrapped his arm around Bulma's waist – In Public, Trunks screamed to his disbelieving eyes – but his familiar suspicious glare didn't do much to balance that out.

"Seems like you might have used it to deliver some kind of warning." Piccolo was stabing at the dark, but he was stabbing in the right direction.

"I did use it to warn you guys. At least, versions of you. This is a completely different timeline, and none of the things you take for granted in your daily lives makes sense to me." Trunks took a deep breath, and went for broke. "Freeza kidnapped my father, destroyed Vegetasie; Goku – sorry – Kakarrot made it to Earth, hit his head and forgot he was Sayajin. My father, Raditz, and Nappa, came here looking to destroy Earth and wish for immortality, and ended up either dying or splitting for Namek after Piccolo died; Kakarrot was the first Super Sayajin, after Freeza killed Krillin. The bastard didn't die, though, and came here looking for revenge; that was the point in time I came back to, to warn Goku about the androids. These androids, actually, but their programming got erased when they regenerated. I ended up creating an alternate timeline from my own. In that timeline, none of the Z Warriors died, and the androids ended up siding with us against Cell; when I got back to my own time, everyone was still dead, and I still had these two to kill, plus the Cell from my own timeline. I swore I wouldn't ever use the time machine again, and now here I fucking am." Trunks carded a hand through his hair, and wondered when the last time he'd talked so much had been.

"You know," Bulma cocked her head to one side, "I think you should come to the little party we're gonna have, and we'll compare notes on timelines. I'd like to take some notes on the theories behind the time machine."

"Yeah, sure." Trunks shrugged, and flew back with them. There wouldn't be any harm in staying for a little while longer; his presence had already created an alternate timeline from what had been supposed to happen, so there was no point in not learning a few things.

As he sat in a lawn chair and ate spare ribs, he talked to his grandfather about the decision to make a break for it when Freeza had demanded his hier; they'd chosen the most backwater, hard to find place they could. Vegeta had practically grown up on Earth, protected and safe; Kakarrot and Raditz had trained from a little old man who'd run into them in the woods, then gone to train with Master Roshi after Master Gohan had died. It had been Kakarrot and Raditz running around, destroying the Red Ribbon Army and making all kinds of Earthling friends; and Vegeta had gotten bored and started tagging along. They'd settled down fairly quickly; Kakarrot with Chi Chi and Raditz with a cute little French girl named Rachelle; Vegeta and Bulma, Tien and Launch, Krillin and Marron. No one was very clear on how Bardock and Yaumcha had gotten together, and Nappa just liked to fish; it'd been a blow for them when Kakarrot had gotten sick, and Chi Chi not long after. Gohan was staying with Ox King, though, and visiting his other grandfather and uncle, staying in contact with all of his parents old friends. Being a healthy young boy. The King of all Sayajin had seen Freeza destroy Vegetasie, and had known the lizard would come for them. He had, and now that it was over life would continue as it always had.

Trunks watched Steven and Sarah play with his younger self, watched his father laugh and joke with his friends. Watched the way Yaumcha curled close to Bardock, and the way Nappa lounged contentedly next to a pile of dirty dishes. Watched Raditz swing a toddler around, and the way Krillin touched Marron's swollen stomach. Watched the way Gohan stood close to Tien's daughter Huoyun and blushed, and the way that Tien eyed them suspiciously.

He told his mother about his own timeline, explained the few things he understood about the time machine, and let the androids nuzzle in close and brush their lips along his skin. It felt good to be part of the group again. Vastly different, and yet still the same.

When the sun started to set, Trunks loaded his androids into the time machine, said goodbye, and closed the hatch. Sarah and Steven waved enthusiastically, and just as Trunks set the dials, Sarah knocked into his arm, and Steven's elbow hit the power button. The blue glow suffused the capsule, and Trunks cursed loudly as they shot off toward an unknown destination.

Again.

Trunks was not having a good day anymore.

When the glow had gone away, Trunks took in the green sky and the blue grass, and started cursing again.

* * *

A/N; Eh...it got the plot going in the right direction. I don't acutally know how this story is going to end, so bear with me, if you're willing. Song lyrics from Savage Garden.


	3. Namek

_And this is how the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper._

Trunks climbed out of the time machine and set foot on Namekien soil. Steven and Sarah had already wandered a little way away, plucking at the grass and trees. There wasn't any telling what dimension they were in, but he could feel his father close by, with Gohan and Krillin. He encapsulated the time machine and headed after the androids, who were wandering in relatively the right direction.

They came over the crest of the hill, which dropped sharply on the other side like a miniature cliff; from here, they were treated to the sight of Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin taking a beating from a motley crew of aliens. Sarah and Steven took off before Trunks could stop them, but he didn't worry overly much; the Ginyu Force would be about right for the level of fighting experience they had. Trunks followed after them at a more sedate pace, and carried Vegeta away from Sarah beating the crap out of the one with the red Mohawk. Gohan and Krillin edged away from the fray as the Ginyu Force turned its attention away from them, and Trunks deposited the his fathers unconscious body next to them.

"Krillin, Gohan, what's up?" Trunks sat next to them, and turned to watch the battle over his shoulder as he pulled his father's head into his lap.

"Uh, hey," Krillin tried to smile, wiping at the blood streaming down his temple.

"You got a senzu, Krillin? He looks pretty bad right now." Trunks turned back to the short bald man, and tried to smile back. He wasn't sure if he'd been successful, but Krillin forked over a senzu anyway. "Thanks, man," Trunks took the bean and pried Vegeta's mouth open, popped the bean in, and waited for the crunch. Vegeta shot up, whirled on his knees, and glared hard.

"Who the hell are you?" All surly snarl; definitely his father.

"Snap at me like that one more time and I swear I'll break your scrawny little neck." This Vegeta, he knew how to relate to. Be surly and sarcastic back, but follow his orders explicitly. Vegeta sucked at all that mushy crap anyway.

He'd taken all three of them aback, but he turned to blast the big blue body that had skidded to a halt right behind him rather than read into their reactions too deeply. Sarah was dodging around, and Trunks couldn't tell if she was just trying to avoid being hit or if she was trying to wear her opponent down.

"Blast 'im, scrap heap! Stop jumping around like a kid with a pogo stick!" Trunks yelled, then turned to find Steven running flat out as the little orange and white one chased him. He leapt over the short fat one, though, and the two teammates collided. "God in heaven, quit _toying_ with them and end it already!"

Steven blasted the two he'd worked into a collision, then took a running leap and landed on the back of the last one standing, still trying to land a hit on Sarah. She fired a ki ball that took off his head and singed her brothers hair, then came trotting toward him.

Trunks stood up as they rushed him, letting them tackle him back into the grass, giggling. As he sat up again, Sarah rolled away and caught sight of the other three.

"Gohan, Krillin, Vegeta!" she chirruped and pounced, hugging them.

"Get OFF of me!" Vegeta tried to shove her away, and scampered back as soon as she'd let go. "What the hell is your problem, harpy? I don't even _know_ you!" Vegeta was somewhere between bewildered and shocked, and continued backing away as Sarah teared up.

"Now that you've met the Vegeta we all know and love, lets get off this rock. That garage isn't going to clean itself." Trunks stood up, brushing the blue grass off of his jeans.

"But he was nice to me in that other timeline!" Sarah pointed an accusatory finger, bottom lip trembling. "And Gohan and Krillin seem just fine!"

"Papa's a surly bastard, honey; don't take it personally. He is what he is, and he's not going to make any excuses or apologies. You're better off leaving him alone right after a battle anyway, he's still too pissed off." Trunks pulled Steven to his feet, and reached down to help Sarah up.

"No way Vegeta's your father, you look like you're the same age!" Krillin was looking back and forth between them, eyes wide.

"Yeah, ask these two scrap heaps what happens when you play with time machines. We've been a little busier than usual today." Trunks rolled his eyes, then whirled as a huge purple alien charged from the left. His mouth was open and he was screaming something; Trunks fired a ki blast straight to his mouth and took out the back of the alien's head.

"Wow! You just killed Captain Ginyu!" Gohan beamed up at him, and Trunks smiled back. It'd been a long time since Gohan had said anything to him in such an excited voice, no matter how old he was.

"No problem. Look, we'll stick around and help out with Freeza, but we cant do anything major; if you don't get strong enough to beat him by yourselves, you wont be strong enough to defend the Earth later. Freeza's just the start of your problems." Trunks turned to the androids, "You think you can fly by yourselves, or do you want me to carry you? Bulma's not too far from here."

"I'll fly," Steven grinned, and lifted off the turf gently. Sarah latched her arms around his neck, so he took off at as slow a pace as Krillin and Gohan could handle. Vegeta would push himself to keep up no matter what pace he set, and true to form, Vegeta hung just to his left, keeping his future son in plain sight.

Bulma had opened several capsules in the little canyon she'd been left in, and was pacing and ranting. As soon as they set down, she tried to go off on Gohan and Krillin for leaving her. She didn't get more then a few sentences in before Sarah and Steven had picked her up and swung her around, bombarding her with questions about her well being and comfort level.

"What the heck is going on, you guys?" She pried herself away from the androids, and caught sight of Trunks. "And who are you?"

"This is Vegeta's son, from the future, and these two are…um…we haven't actually been formally introduced," Gohan blushed, then bowed. "I'm Son Gohan."

"I'm Sarah, and that's my brother Steven. Bulma, in like, twenty years or so, don't get mad that we took the time machine out for a spin, okay? We didn't know what it was, I swear we only pushed the one button, and it just started humming and glowing blue and-"

"I built a _time machine_?! That is so _cool_!" Bulma jumped up and down, squealed at the top of her lungs, and ran around in circles for several minutes. Sarah hopped and squealed with her, adding to the cacophony. Trunks just covered his ears until it was over. "You're really Vegeta's son? Is he always going to be such a bastard?" Bulma cocked her head as Trunks laughed. "What's so funny? Hey, asshole, I'm talking to you!"

"Show some respect, woman!" Vegeta growled, and fired an annoyed warning shot at Trunks as he toppled over from laughing too hard. Trunks didn't even try to block it, just let it hit and sizzle away, and didn't pay too much attention to the considering look Vegeta gave him.

Trunks didn't have long to wait before Goku showed up, and when the big happy man did, there wasn't much to do besides find Dende and fight Freeza. Trunks hung back as they wished Piccolo back to life, and sat on the sidelines, androids and Bulma parked next to him. He sat through over an hour of fighting, and only involved himself in the fray when Freeza shot Vegeta through the chest; cradling his fathers dying body made him wonder what his father must have felt when Cell had shot him. Goku moved to bury Vegeta, but backed away with an understanding look, turning back to his fight with Freeza. Trunks didnt know that the look in his eyes brooked no argument, not even from his hero. It wouldn't be much longer anyway.

Trunks sat and held his father's body until he reared up again, gasping as life coursed back through him. He'd learned that Vegeta couldn't work well with words and gushy feelings; so he waved, and decapsulated the time machine. As he climbed into it, Vegeta blipped out of existence, wished back to Earth; Trunks closed the hatch as Sarah and Steven clambored in after him, and hit the button, not even looking at where the dials had been set this time. Somewhere, anywhere, that he didn't have to think about his father's lifeless body draped in his arms.

When the blue glow faded, Trunks didn't recognize where he was; it was definitely a space ship hanger, and it was definitely Freeza-esque. The only familiar thing was a bloody, beaten Vegeta being hauled out of a space pod just down the docking bay, by man with a green braid and a big, fat, pink fucker.

* * *

A/N; Its crap, too, but the next chapter is going to be good. Poem at the beginning this time, and although I couldn't tell you who wrote it for the life of me, its famous enough for me to never claim any credit for it.


	4. Remember

_He's a beast, he's a dog, he's a motherfuckin' problem._

"Out, now." Trunks ordered as he threw the hatch open. Sarah and Steven leapt lightly to the steel floor, and Trunks hit the capsulation button before his feet even touched the ground. "Follow Vegeta." Trunks scooped the tiny capsule off of the barren expanse of steel and stalked after Zarbon and Dodoria. Vegeta's blood left splatters on the floor, and the androids were giving him a wide berth. He didn't realize his lips had peeled back from his teeth in a feral snarl, that he was growling low in his throat, or that his aura was starting to snap around him.

The trail of blood led to the center of the ship, right up to a door that didn't hiss open automatically when Trunks stopped and glared at it.

"Open this door before I blast a hole in it." Trunks ordered, and Sarah poked tentatively at the control panel next to the door. The panel beeped at her for several minutes as she pressed buttons frantically, shooting Trunks nervous glances. He ignored her efforts, continuing to glare at the door, breathing deeply.

"Trunks, I don't know how to get it to open, I'm sorry," she cringed, but all he did was place his hands on the door and lean. The metal dented, buckled, and started to curl into the room beyond. Trunks took a step forward, and the metal bent against its will. Trunks pushed it open like a set of double doors, and stepped through the gap into the next room.

Steven and Sarah couldn't see past him, but the visceral snarl made them jump back. Trunks stalked slowly towards the center of the room, and the twins crowded in through the wrecked door; Trunks reached over his father's prone body, grabbed Freeza by the horns, and wrenched the lizards head off. The rest of the reptilian body slumped down onto the Sayajin Prince; Trunks toed it away hard enough to send it flying into the wall. There was a mewling sound from the bed at the far end of the room, and Trunks' gasp was audible in the ringing silence.

Bulma sat up on the bed, one side of her face swollen and purple, blood and bruises covering her naked body; she wobbled onto her feet, and the blood trickling down her thighs was visible before she crumpled.

"Steven, wrap her up in a sheet and carry her. Sarah, take Vegeta. And you two," Trunks whirled on Zarbon and Dodoria, already cowering against the wall. Trunks shot a ki blast that took out Dodoria and the chunk of wall behind him, and then pinned Zarbon to the wall with one hand against his throat. "You've got thirty seconds to get us off this ship and away from here, or you're going to die by _inches_."

Trunks let him go, and stalked after the green-haired man as Zarbon ran for a control panel in the wall by the bed. A chunk of the wall slid open, and Zarbon darted through it, still choking and gasping. Trunks followed just a step behind as they went down a long, dark, narrow corridor, into a private docking bay. Zarbon keyed in the commands to the small ship sitting alone in the bay, and stood back for Trunks to board. He shoved Zarbon ahead of him, twisting the man's arm behind his back as they marched into the ship.

"Close it up, get it out of this shit hole, and get them into regeneration tanks." Trunks dogged every step Zarbon took, and the man scrambled to comply, shaking badly. When they finally stood back from the tanks, full of green slime and floating bodies, Trunks crouched down and covered his mouth with his hand. Sarah reached out and brushed his hair out of his eyes, and he caught her hand and held it. Steven came close, resting one hand on his shoulder; Trunks took a few shaky breaths, then turned back to Zarbon.

"Explain."

"Um…you came through the door, and, um…"

Trunks rushed him, slammed him against the wall, pinning him with one hand around his throat.

"_What happened to them_." Zarbon gagged, and started turning yellow. Trunks let him go, and Zarbon slid to the floor, coughing and gasping. "You're pretty high on my shit list, green bean. In fact, you're right under Freeza, but I cant kill _that_ rapist motherfucker twice, now can I?"

"Actually," Sarah started.

"Not now. But I can break every single bone in your body, slowly, or you can tell me what Freeza wanted with these two." Zarbon focused large yellow eyes on him, scared and swallowing hard.

"The Ginyu Force brought her back from one of the planets they purged. It was supposed to be a joke, since she'd looked so ugly. Just Ginyu trying to get back at Vegeta for something stupid or other, they've been feuding since the Monkey was five years old, but he um, he cleaned her up, and no one said anything for a while because it's no big deal for a soldier to keep a pet, you know? Except Vegeta turned Freeza down for her, and well…Freeza wasn't a good person to say no to. So Freeza sent Vegeta off to his brother Kooler, about a month ago, and he'd just gotten back, and Dodoria and I had orders to take Vegeta straight to Freeza the moment he got back. Freeza's been toying with her when he remembers. I guess Kooler must have sent word that he was sending back the Monkey, or else Freeza might have forgotten about her. I swear, I don't know anything more, I just put her in the regen tanks when she was close to croaking." Zarbon tried to huddle into the steel wall behind him, cowering back as Trunks crouched down in front of him. His blue eyes _burned_.

"You know what I think, green bean?" Trunks grinned, and if it had been another time and place, Zarbon would have known to compare the son to the father. "I think you're a little bitch, too scared to lie and too good at kissing ass to try. Make whatever passes for dinner out here on this hunk of junk, and have it done by the time they get out," Trunks jerked a thumb at the regen tanks, then stood and backed away. "You two, come with me. Lets find a place to lie down for a while." Trunks left the medical dock, and wandered down the corridors, opening doors until he found a bed that could hold three in a pinch.

He flopped down on his back, and Sarah curled up between him and the wall; Steven keyed the door closed, but as he stepped closer to the bed, his face suddenly went blank. Trunks snapped his attention to the android as the smaller man simply stared, expressionless, at the bed and its occupants.

"Steven. Come to bed." Trunks ordered, watching the delicate face contort slowly into a pained look. Steven crumpled, clutching at his long dark hair, and started to scream. Trunks was off the bed and wrapping his arms around the android before Sarah even had a chance to react. He held on until the screaming became sobbing, until the sobbing became mere hiccups.

"I remember," Seventeen whispered into the denim of Trunks' jacket, clutching at the material desperately. "I remember everything, Trunks, I'm sorry, so sorry," and the sobbing started up again. Trunks held the smaller body tighter, stroked the dark hair; when the android pulled back and looked him in the eye, Trunks kissed the miserable line of his mouth for a long, hard moment. Of all the foolish things he'd done in his life, Trunks decided that he regretted this one the least.

Trunks pulled him onto the bed, and lay so that the android was wedged between his sister and Trunks. They'd just barely fallen asleep when there was a soft knocking at the door; Trunks slipped out of the bed as gently as he could, and stepped outside the room to speak to Zarbon.

The green man was calmer now, and bowed low as Trunks folded his arms across his chest.

"You don't have to do that," Trunks felt the guilt well up; Zarbon wasn't directly responsible for any of his problems right now, and taking his anger out on him had been vaguely wrong. "I don't think I actually know your name."

"Zarbon, my lord. Dinner is ready to be served in the long galley, and Vegeta is about to come out of the regen tank. The girl will be in there for another three hours."

"Thanks, Zarbon." Trunks nodded and headed to the medical bay, ignoring the shocked look on the green man's face.

Trunks made it just in time to hand his father a towel as he stepped out of the tank; now that his vision wasn't clouded by a red haze, he could see that Vegeta was barely seventeen. Bulma's face still looked too swollen to tell, but she was still pretty young.

"You one of Freeza's new lackies?" Vegeta took the towel and started wiping at his face first.

"No. Freeza's dead."

Vegeta looked up, eyes wide. "I thought it was just a dream." The black eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You think they cant track this ship, idiot? Its Freeza's personal cruise ship,"

"It'll get the job done for now. Zarbon made dinner. Lets go." Trunks walked away; Vegeta would find his way eventually.

Zarbon had followed him to the medical bay, and led the way now to the long galley. The room turned out to contain only a long table and chairs, with purple fabric draped all over the place. One end was set for four, with a huge beast of some kind as the main course. Trunks sat in one of the normal chairs, instead of the high-backed monstrosity that Freeza obviously favored.

"Sit down and eat, Zarbon," Trunks waved the green-haired man closer, and waited until Vegeta had come in wearing just a body suit to serve himself.

The meal was quiet, Zarbon and Vegeta watchful, and Trunks just trying to not think about anything other than fulfilling one of his body's basic requirements. They all turned as Sarah came into the room, looking bleary-eyed and still half-asleep.

"You okay, honey?" Trunks wiped the grease off of his mouth as he stood up, watching the blonde carefully.

"Yeah. I just wondered where you'd gone." She yawned hard, then blinked owlishly. "He's still sleeping. Is that roast any good?"

"Yeah, Zarbon made it. Come eat, I'll go check on him." Trunks kissed the crown of her hairline as he walked past her, and brushed a thumb across her cheek as she looked up at him with wide china-blue eyes. "Check on Bulma when you're done, okay?" she nodded, and he went past her, back to the room he'd left Seventeen in.

The android snapped awake as the doors hissed open, bolting upright on the bed. Bleary and disoriented, he watched as Trunks came toward him slowly, and let the purple-haired man pin him to the bed with the length of his body.

"How you doing, scrap heap?" Trunks hadn't realized that in the span of six short months, the term 'scrap heap' had gone from an attempt at derogatory, to affectionate. Somehow, Seventeen had. He kissed the miserable little mouth again, this time until a questing tongue prodded and hips rocked.

Trunks had slept with few women and never another male before; there was still the same thrill of a pale body arching under his, and the little sounds the individual made, that made him want to push harder and deeper. The new thrill was in the fact that he could; as hard as he wanted to, as deep as he needed to. Just the feel of another body stiffening in his arms with orgasm was enough to bring Trunks off. The fact that he might actually be in love with the person he was fucking was an entirely new sensation.

Trunks, even when he'd been young and yearning for his father's acceptance, hated to cuddle or linger; this time, he did, and enjoyed it. It paid off as Seventeen continued to arch and squirm, despite being spent. There was no gratification other than the need for familiar, comforting company, and as the pale body continued to writhe, Trunks wondered what he'd been missing out on his entire life. Since it had come in two's though, he didn't think too hard about it. Fate was a sick fuck, to force him to hate, and then to love, the two people who'd affected his life the most.

He pushed Seventeen into the shower ahead of him, and discovered the lazy satisfaction that comes from bathing a partner already well-fucked. Hands and soap and long expanses of smooth skin aside, Trunks stepped out of the shower first and dried off. As he stepped back into the bedroom to collect his scattered clothes, Sarah stepped in.

She looked like she _knew_. Just the way she moved toward him, innocently predatorial; all of it in the sway of her hips and the slow, steady walk. She got close, holding eye contact, and Trunks pulled her in for a rough kiss.

Loving both of them would be one thing; acting on it was another. It was incredibly Sayajin of him to take the things he wanted most and the consequences be damned. Even as he had her pulled tight against him, one hand on her ass and holding her fast to his groin while the other cradled her neck as he kissed her as hard as he felt like, Seventeen walked casually out of the bathroom and donned his clothes as if nothing in the world were wrong.

That should have been the first hint that things were going to be _off_ for the foreseeable future.

Seventeen left, the door hissing shut behind him as he pulled his shirt over his head.

Trunks steered and tilted until he had the blonde android pinned underneath him; making love to her was more intimate, face to face, and harder in that he couldn't know for sure if she'd already come. She squirmed and panted prettily, though, and wedged a hand down between them just before she arched, stiffened, and screamed.

His hair was still wet, and tangled beyond belief, but he steered them into the shower again. The same wonderful feeling of explorations slicked with soap, and the lazy satisfaction of a job well done; the same tugging at his heart strings.

He knew, as he watched her put her clothes back on, that he'd never be able to let either of them go.

He steeled himself, though, and went with Sarah to pull his mother out of the regen tank.

Trunks had already been feeling more emotional than usual; the sight of his sixteen-year-old mother stepping out of the regen tank, and rushing into his father's arms, was the icing on the cake. A year in a day with his father had taught him to be stoic; the teenage Vegeta hadn't yet learned to conceal his feelings. Bulma kissed and hugged him, and the Sayajin Prince wrapped arms and tail around her as if he had every intention of never letting her go.

Trunks took one look at the shocked, bitter jealousy on Zarbon's face, and wondered if leaving his teenage parents alone was worth the risk. Zarbon was afraid of the Trunks, not the Sayajin Prince, and certainly not the weak human female he'd mated with.

That night, he could hear his parents going at it; pinned as he was underneath two other bodies, though, he didn't lose too much sleep over it.

Zarbon had retired to a separate room, on the other side of the ship as Bulma, Vegeta, Trunks, and the androids. It was just off of the kitchen, and little more than a bunk and sink, but he seemed like he knew how to do little else other than withdraw and hide.

Trunks made a point to corner him in the kitchen the next morning.

"So what's the deal, Zarbon?" Trunks bit into a crunchy piece of blue fruit about the size of an apple. "You look like you don't know how to do anything other than cater to someone else's needs. Look at you, already up and making breakfast. Trying to make sure I wont change my mind and kill you?"

Zarbon turned and looked at him for a long moment, the weighing of options and answers in his head obvious in his yellow eyes. Blunt honesty won out, only because it was the tactic Trunks had chosen to attack with.

"Basically. You haven't shown me any favor, you'll probably kill me as soon as you don't need me, and you sure as hell don't want to fuck me. So what else is there to do in order to be considered valuable?" Zarbon waved the skillet expansively. "I know what kind of food is already stocked and how to cook it. How else to do you expect me to stay alive?"

Trunks chewed thoughtfully for a long moment, taking Zarbon in.

"I owe you an apology. You had nothing to do with, or at least no way to prevent, the way Vegeta and Bulma were treated. I was angry the other day, and I had no right to take it out on you."

The pan Zarbon had been holding clattered noisily to the floor. The yellow eyes were wide, and the generous mouth lax. The braided man stared for a long moment, transfixed.

"That's got to be the first time anyone has ever apologized to me," Zarbon looked like he was about to cry; Trunks panicked and took the three steps necessary to close the distance between them and envelope the green-haired man in a one-armed hug.

Zarbon crumbled into him and cried for so long that Vegeta and Bulma came to the kitchen doorway and paused awkwardly. Trunks pulled away, and Zarbon caught sight of them; he turned and fled through the other door leading into the kitchen, one hand held up to shield his face.

"What the hell?" Vegeta looked at Trunks, eyes wide with the question.

"It doesn't concern you. Just help me find some eggs, I don't know how to cook anything else." Trunks scooped up the pan from the floor, and looked carefully at the ingredients Zarbon had pulled out and left on the counter. "I don't even know what this stuff is."

"Morning everyone!" Sarah chirruped as she came into the room. "Sounded like you had a good night, Bulma!" she winked suggestively, bumped hips with the girl playfully. Bulma blushed and darted behind Vegeta, blue eyes wide and scared.

"Sarah, can you make breakfast?" The pleading note in Trunks' voice was minimal, but the blonde still laughed at him.

"I can try. Where's Zarbon? He seemed pretty nice at dinner last night. Did you say sorry for being mean the other day?" Sarah prattled on, not really expecting an answer, as she rummaged through the kitchen and assembled ingredients on the counters. "You know, its really weird that Vegeta is so young in this dimension, I mean, when you time travel aren't you supposed to go back to when your parents were the same age as you? Hand me that pan, please. Are you nice in this timeline, Vegeta? You were pretty mean in the last one, but you were nice in that first one we landed in. It was kind of cool, the way all the Sayajins and humans got along. Hey, bro!"

Seventeen slid into the kitchen, and made a straight line to Trunks. He leaned against the counter without touching Trunks, eyes downcast and arms folded. Trunks eyed him thoughtfully as Sarah continued to putter around the kitchen.

"I'm really glad you're okay, Bulma, you looked pretty bad yesterday. I think this machine makes coffee, what do you think?" Sarah held the machine in question out, and Bulma finally stepped forward and examined it.

"If it doesn't, I can fix that. Let me see." Bulma took the machine and tinkered with it for several minutes as Sarah started frying meat in the pan she'd set on the stove.

"Zarbon said Earth was purged by the Ginyu Force. What does that mean?" Sarah asked the question innocently, and because she was standing at the stove, she didn't see Bulma freeze.

"It means Captain Ginyu and his team of idiots went down to Earth and killed or captured every living sentient being on the surface of the planet, so that Freeza could sell it to the highest bidder." Vegeta drawled, picking up a piece of fruit. "I'm not buying that shit about Sayajins and humans getting along. Sayajin don't get along with anyone, not even each other."

"We get along," Bulma didn't look up from the machine she was tinkering with.

"Freeza created extenuating circumstances." Vegeta bit into the fruit, avoiding looking at Bulma as well.

"Its pretty simple, actually," Trunks was still watching the dark-haired android, but turned to look at his father as he spoke. "There are thousands of timelines, thousands of different dimensions, so that everything that could happen, has a place to happen in. The fact that we're here at all is going to severely alter this timeline, but there's a timeline that will be exactly like this in every way, up until the point when we came here, and things will happen there the way they should have happened. The thing, though," Trunks glanced at Bulma, still tinkering with the machine, "Is that we've been to some dimensions where people made different choices, and became different people because of those choices and the consequences they had to deal with. There's a world where your father packed you up and ran, rather than let Freeza have you. He watched Vegetasie be destroyed, and when he landed on Earth, he made the choice to let you be who you wanted to be, rather than build up a new empire for you to rule. Because of those two choices, he's a vastly different person than he ever could be in any other dimension."

"Did we meet there? In that dimension?" Bulma asked, finally looking up from the machine.

"Yeah. Married with kids, the whole shebang." Trunks smiled at her, gently, but it didn't help; she rushed out of the room in tears.

"You shouldn't have told her that," Vegeta tossed the core of the fruit away, "I don't think either of us needed to know that this is the dimension where everything went wrong."

"Things can still turn out okay. Fate's a sick fuck that way. Just look at these two." Trunks gestured to the androids. "They were turned into ruthless killing machines and razed Earth for nearly twenty years before I was strong enough to kill them, and now that they've regenerated without their programming, they're just regular human beings again."

"You were still pretty mean the first couple of weeks," Sarah dumped the cooked meat onto a serving platter, then started cracking large blue eggs into the pan. "I mean, it was pretty hard, waking up and finding out we were worse than Hitler, and you just dragged us all over the place, making us look at all the things we'd done, and leaving flowers on the graves of people we'd killed. It was like we were making up for sins we hadn't even committed, except that it kind of made sense. Even if we didn't remember destroying all those cities, they still needed to be rebuilt, and someone has to do all that work. So why not us, right? We'd done the damage, so we might as well try to fix what we can. Its not like we can just go around saying sorry; there's no apology in the world big enough or heartfelt enough to be genuine." Sarah poked at the eggs in the pan with a spatula, smiling down at the food.

"It got a lot easier once you started being nicer." Seventeen finally joined the conversation, still looking down at the ground. "You're rough around the edges, and you're not very good at dealing with your feelings, but you go above and beyond to help people."

"Breakfast is ready!" Sarah chirruped.

"I'll go get Bulma," Trunks turned away from the fact that Seventeen, all memories in tact and fully functional, had basically said the three little words.

He disappeared down the steel corridor, following Bulma's ki more than anything else. He paused at the right door long enough for it to slide open, stepping into the gloom.

"Oh!" She started swiping at her face, futilely. "I didn't think that…well…" she tried to smile.

"You aren't fooling anyone," Trunks didn't know if he was supposed to feel bad because she was his mother, or because she was a sixteen year old girl who'd been through repeated rape and torture.

"Yeah, well, fuck off, then!" the venom in her voice was deep enough and dark enough to cut. "Does it look like I'm trying to throw a pity party here?"

Trunks sighed and went for broke.

"I don't know what you're looking for, Mom, and considering the fact that you're in love with my father, and have been in every dimension I've ever been to, I don't think I'll ever understand that decision." Trunks hooked his thumbs in his jeans and leaned on the doorframe. "I know why I love him, as a son. But you? Dad is the one thing I don't get about you. Why him; why Vegeta?"

"I thought that if I gave my virginity to him, it wouldn't be nearly as bad as if someone took if from me, later. He was the first person I met, after the Ginyu Force purged Earth." Bulma hiccupped, and Trunks couldn't help moving to the edge of the bed. "If having a man inside of you isn't love, the first time, I don't know what is. Really, because besides Freeza, Vegeta is the only person who's been inside of me." She waivered for a moment, and Trunks reached out an arm to her that she curled into. "I must have been so naive, hoping he'd come rescue me. I know he'd do anything in his power for me, but lets face it; there's no way he could have stood up to Freeza. And that slimy bastard would do anything he could to hurt Vegeta. Absolutely anything." She hiccupped again, and this time Trunks held onto her as tightly as he dared. "Its like loving him is my destiny. Like I'm the only person in the universe who really gets him, deep down where it really matters."

"Maybe. I sure as hell don't know shit about him." Trunks thought about this while his mother sniffled. "Well, I know how to tell him I respect him. But telling him I love him…I might have been able to do that, three years ago. But now that I've had a chance to get to know at least one version of him, I don't know. Vegeta is the one thing in both our lives that doesn't make a damn bit of sense."

Bulma laughed bitterly.

"Breakfast is ready, by the way. I gotta go get Zarbon. You'll be okay?" Trunks released his mother and walked to the door, watching her over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll be okay."

He smirked, and took the back corridors across the ship to the room Zarbon had holed up in.

He knocked on the door, before it had a chance to hiss open. Zarbon was combing his wet green hair out in front of a dingy mirror, and nearly plastered himself against the wall as Trunks came through into the room.

"Hey. Breakfast is ready, if you want any." Trunks stared at the green-haired man for a long time, carefully cataloguing the reaction against all the others. "You know, I forgot to ask where we're headed. You just typed in a destination, and even if I looked at it right now, I wouldn't know where we're going." Trunks waited, and stared, until Zarbon finally cracked.

"We're going to a little back water planet, out in the Nebula system. Its pretty similar to my homeworld, actually-"

"Liar." Trunks cocked his head. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want the truth."

Zarbon swallowed hard.

"I set the course to directly intersect Kooler's army."

"Ah." Trunks nodded. "You might want to go change that after you eat. I'm leaving in a few hours, and somehow, I doubt you'll want to present yourself to Kooler with only the news of his brother's death."

Trunks didn't even wait for the green-haired man to respond. He just backed out of the room and went back to the kitchen, where he sat between his androids and ate breakfast. He watched the surreptitious way his teenage parents eyed each other, and wondered if his real parents, from his own timeline, had watched each other like ravenous wolves.

When he'd eaten, he pushed the huge wooden table out of the way in the long galley, decapsulated the time machine, and climbed in with the two androids. He let them wave before he set the dials, and had them cease all movement before he pushed the button.

As his hand hovered over the button, Sarah gave a pained moan and clutched her head, fingeres tightening in her hair as if she were trying to pull it out. Trunks wrapped both arms around her and pulled her firmly against his chest; her legs drew up as she started to scream, knocking first into dials and then into Seventeen, who's elbow hit the button as he jerked in the confined space.

The blue glow shot up around them, and Trunks cursed silently as Eighteen screamed at the top of her lungs. Trunks didn't even glance around at the world he'd been dropped into; just popped the hatch and leapt out, trying to keep the android pinned to his chest as she continued to scream and writhe.

When the screaming had died down to mere sobbing, Trunks looked up; he stared down the wrong end of his own sword, past the familiar denim jacket, and into his own face.

* * *

A/N; Sorry this took longer than usual, but this was the chapter that just wouldn't _end_. I'm also trying to get a job and change my major, so its not like I've had a lot of time on my hands this week. Hopefully some holes in previous chapters explained, and much love to Lil Wayne for the lyrics. We'll see where this next chapter goes, I haven't even outlined it yet.


	5. Yesterdays

_Yesterday, there were so many things I was never shown; Suddenly this time I found I'm on the streets and I'm all alone; Yesterday's got nothing for me._

Trunks stared up at himself for a long moment of speechless surprise. The sword didn't waver; then again, the tip wasn't right in his face. It was leveled at Eighteen, who was still clinging to him and sobbing, and hadn't even noticed. His hair was still at that awkward length that kept getting in his eyes; they were in the mountains, he could feel his father closing in as a Super Sayajin, and his mother was just off to the left, gaping. Everyone was there, actually, everyone from the second time he'd come back. Tien, Krillin, Piccolo, and Gohan.

Oh, good LORD.

"Wow, you guys look almost exactly alike!" Bulma crouched low to get a good look at Trunks, eyeing his longer hair and ripped jacket. "Why'd you come back in time again? Honey, are you okay?"

"Don't talk to it! Its just a trick, its always just a trick!" Trunks rolled his eyes as his younger version snarled.

"You just said that the two androids from the future looked like a beautiful young woman and a boy with long dark hair, right?" Tien was being awfully observant, wasn't he? Trunks closed his eyes against the mounting urge to scream.

"We are _not_ going to play twenty fucking _questions_!" Trunks snarled, then glared at himself. "I'm not here on purpose, and I'm going home as soon as I've ripped Gero's head off, and everyone can go back to their happy little lives, alright? How long ago did he take off?"

"What the _hell_ are you doing with-"

"HOW LONG!" Trunks hated arguing with himself, even when there was only one of him. "You are _pressed_ for time, and its still not going to make a damn bit of difference! You let your hate hold you back, and you've got the same weakness as Father, alright? I already know where Gero's going, I just don't know how much time there is, so make yourself useful!"

"Two, maybe three minutes. By all means, boy, lead the way." Vegeta was standing near the back of the group, arms crossed and stance wide. He remembered how impatient his father had been to get to the androids, how frustrated he'd been at the time. Ignore the feelings, he reminded himself, because mostly, they'd just gotten in the way of stopping the androids.

Trunks never thought he'd be so glad for something so familiar, anyway.

"Good." Trunks felt the tension drain a little. "Mom, look after Eighteen, alright? She just got over amnesia, and she's clingy when she's upset." Trunks ignored his mother's squawking, and dumped the blonde android unceremoniously onto his mother. "You'll be alright, honey, I'll be right back. Seventeen, lets go!" Trunks took to the air, Seventeen on his heels, and the other Z Warriors tailing cautiously behind.

Trunks went for broke, powering up to Super Sayajin to haul ass, and skidded to a halt at the entrance to Gero's lab. The others landed behind him, fanning out.

"You think he's here already?" Seventeen asked, edging in close to Trunks, trying to use the older version to shield himself from the younger version, who was glaring balefully.

"Its possible. But no matter how fast he's going, Gero took off on foot, and he'd going to keep using the narrow canyons as cover. Piccolo, Tien, Krillin, will you stay out here and keep Gero from getting in, if he's behind us?" He waited for them to nod, then continued. "Gohan, will you go back and make sure Bulma's okay? Thanks, man. You three, we're going in."

Trunks didn't even wait for his father or his other self to respond; he knew himself, and his father, well enough to know that they'd follow out of simple curiosity, and he knew Seventeen well enough to know that he'd follow like a blind puppy.

He'd been in the cavern before, knew the basic layout, knew where the long glass cylinders were.

"You're obviously strong enough to kill them now," Trunks didn't look at himself as he spoke, mostly because explaining his decision made as a twenty year old man to his seventeen year old self was, well, going to be left at 'complicated'. "So why is it still walking?"

The way Seventeen jerked, and the way his china-blue eyes got wide and hurt, threw a monkey wrench in that line of attack. His younger self almost looked confused at the expression on the androids face; Trunks remembered going off about how cold and ruthless their eyes had been. True, now that Seventeen had his memory back, he was much more closed off; but Steven's personality was still dominant. He still didn't know how to hide his emotions, and he still had no concept of personal space.

"First of all, I did kill them. Secondly, they regenerated without any memory or their original programming. Thirdly, and this is the important part, the rest of the story is none of your damn business. I don't have to explain my decisions to anyone, not even myself." Trunks stopped at the long back wall, completely devoid of tanks. "And things are different. Again." He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, and flopped down onto the concrete floor.

"What did you screw up this time, boy?" Vegeta was looking around, and the comment was off hand, so Trunks treated it as such.

"You know what I was planning to do today? Clean the garage out for Mom." Trunks ignored the exasperated eye-roll and heavy sigh from Seventeen. "But I got to spend it dimension hopping all over the place, thank you Captain Obvious, and now it's the same shit all over again." Trunks carded a hand through his long hair, and stared hard at the suspiciously blank wall. "Its crazy, though, getting a second chance like this. Finally getting to steer it the way I wish it could have gone, you know?"

"Don't get all mushy, boy," Vegeta warned, glowering. "You should have done it right from the beginning."

"Ha! Yeah, right, this from the man who cant cook a potato? Lesson already learned; the Prince of all Sayajin wouldn't know what to do with a warm fuzzy thought if it bit him in the ass. Besides, it all went to hell because of you, Father, so don't even _try_ playing that card."

"Why, you _insolent_ little-"

"Are you done whining?" Seventeen asked from the far corner of the room. "Because I think I just found myself." There was a beeping of buttons being pushed, and then the back wall slid up to reveal the tanks.

"Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, and lets see what's in here," Trunks peered at the last tube. "Cell. Dingdingdingdingding, we have a winner. Gold stars for everyone, my job's done, have a nice life." Trunks started back up to the front of the lab. "Father, don't ride my ass so hard this time around, and try not let Cell absorb the other androids. You'll look a lot less stupid, later, I promise. That, and saving your decrepit ass gets old. Peace." Trunks flashed the sign at them as he walked back toward the light, Seventeen on his heel.

"You're leaving, just like that?!" Trunks ignored himself. "What about steering it the way you wish it could have gone?"

"A single grain of rice can tip the scale, and all that shit. This was the one point where everything could have gone differently. Now that it has, I'm no longer needed, because quite frankly, I've got my own world to look after. You might not even meet Cell, for all I know. Everything has changed, because of this one little thing."

"But you cant just-"

Trunks whirled, already snarling. "Oh, yes, I can. I'm done trying to save the things that couldn't be saved to begin with. I want my own happy ending, and its not going to come and land in my lap if I'm off gallivanting around the dimensions looking for it." Trunks paused for a breath, but Seventeen's hand on the small of his back, just under his jacket, brought a sudden bout of calm. "By the way, he's easier to get along with if you just argue with him all the time. Be careful, though, surly bastard is a pretty contagious disease." Trunks started back toward the entrance of the lab.

"Don't I know it," Seventeen groused; Trunks laughed and slung an arm around his neck, giving him an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder. He ignored the look he knew he was giving himself, and the raised eyebrow from Vegeta; he wasn't the same person he'd been at the very beginning of his adventure, and no matter how much he cared about his father's opinion of him, that opinion only decreased when he was being dependent and needy. Lesson learned, indeed.

When they stepped outside, Piccolo was tearing Gero apart piece by piece. That was fun to watch for a while, so Trunks waited for them to be done with it before he took off. When Piccolo landed in front of him, he tucked his thumbs in his jean pockets, and smirked.

"Nice one. Stay here and guard the scrap heaps, though, because Cell is going to be along in a couple of days." Trunks warned, then took off without saying goodbye. In a sense, he already had, and since it hadn't happened yet, he didn't really need to.

He found his mother sitting with Eighteen crying in her lap, Yajerobe standing off to one side and holding the baby awkwardly, and Gohan twisting his hands uselessly. The second Trunks touched down, Eighteen launched herself into his arms and simply held on.

"You feel better now?" Trunks asked, cradling the back of her head.

"No." Eighteen detached herself, and flung herself at her brother.

Trunks watched them for a long moment; before they'd regained their memories, they'd been happy-go-lucky, with absolutely no personal boundaries, an alarming tendency to want to cuddle, and a naivety that bordered on cute when he didn't want to strangle them. The way they clung to each other now, though, was desperate and hurt. Trunks felt his gut clench, thought about ignoring it, and held his arms out instead. They latched on like leeches, and for the first time, Trunks didn't mind letting them. He decided he'd wheedle sex out of them later, as payment, anyway.

"So you, and that other young man, are both from the future, and you're both Trunks?" Bulma asked, interrupting the moment. Trunks focused on her, but the androids ignored her and continued to hide their faces in his tank top.

"Yeah. The whole time travel thing just didn't work out, you know? But it'll be alright in the end. It always is, even if you don't know it." Trunks smiled at his mother, "Keep a look out for another time machine popping up, though, there're still rocky waters ahead."

"I will, kiddo. You stay safe, too, d'ya hear?" Trunks smiled at her and loaded the androids into the time machine.

He set the dials and hit the button as fast as he could, and when the blue glow faded, he was back in the garage, half empty with boxes still strewn everywhere.

"C'mon, its bound to be lunch time," Trunks hefted himself and the androids back out the time machine, capsulated it, and they headed inside.

* * *

A/N; This might be the end. I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I did some serious research to put this in the exact time and place that it had to go; I actually went back and watched episodes 116 and 117 from the Android Saga to get it right. Props to Guns n' Roses, again, for the lyrics. Sorry if anyone had higher expectations, but the whole dimension hopping thing just sort of petered out, since I didnt want to spend more than one chapter in each dimension. Stay tuned, though, because next on my list is a DBZ/SM crossover; I've read a couple over the years, and it always kind of galled me that Serena would get paired up with anyone besides Darian. I very rarely like to break outside of cannon pairings. That, and when I was thirteen, I was watching Serena discover that Rini was her daughter from the future at the same time I was watching the Trunks Saga. Nudge, nudge.


	6. Finding

_I see the love, I see the hate, I see the world that we can make_

"Trunks?" Eighteen asked, just as the young man stepped into the doorway. He turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised; she bit her lip, suddenly strangely hesitant. Trunks leaned against the doorjamb and folded his arms, waiting for her.

"How does this work?" it looked like the question forced itself out, against her will.

"Honestly," Trunks shrugged, "I don't know. I think we get to sort of make it up as we go along."

"Yeah, but," Seventeen cut himself off, looking away. "What if our programming-"

"Hush." Trunks narrowed his eyes. "If it comes, it comes, and I'll do what needs to be done. But for now," Trunks straightened and held both arms out for them to step into him, "We take it one day at a time."

Eighteen went to him immediately, nuzzling along his jaw, but Seventeen hung back.

"Trunks," the smaller man looked so pained, as he stood apart. "Could you really kill us again?"

"Probably not. But its not the only solution to the problem. C'mon, babe, you know I wont let anything bad happen. So lets go eat." Trunks paused, arm still held out, while Seventeen still hesitated. "Seriously, move that ass; I'm starving."

Seventeen broke into an unwilling smile, and came slowly into the circle of Trunks' arm, and let himself be led to the kitchen.

"Trunks?" Eighteen started, "I'm sorry about the time machine."

"Don't be. I'm sorry I whined so much about the best thing that's ever happened to me."

* * *

Okay, now its done.


End file.
